Local Media App Trends | MMA Global

Local Media App Trends

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mobile moves incredibly fast. Keeping pace with both the technology and consumer expectations presents unique challenges and opportunities. Data on mobile usage is helpful, but is by its very nature looking backwards instead of ahead to the future. This survey, released in July 2013, aspires to answer the qualitative questions that quantitative data simply cannot.

Here are a few key findings from our first study:

• 1 in 4 smartphone owners have a local news app installed.

• The TV Broadcast is still the primary choice for receiving local news content, as voiced by 47% of the survey population.

• On-air promotion is the single most important driver of app awareness and downloads, receiving 41% of responses.

• Apps trump websites for the second choice for local news content.

• Consumers prefer apps for breaking news, and tablets for reading content.

• For a paywall to succeed, a local media company must deliver very unique content.

• Social media is becoming an important source of local news for younger demographics.

• The 60+ demographic uses local news apps more often than any other age range.


METHODOLOGY

• 4,258 people completed the survey, of which 1,165 had a local news app installed on a smartphone, tablet, or connected TV.

• The survey data only samples the 1,165 qualified responses.

• The targeted audience consisted of smartphone owners who must be 18 years or older and reside in the United States.

• The survey was open to all local news app users, and was not exclusive to StepLeader customers.

• The survey consisted of 21 questions and took an average of 5m 24s to complete.

• Prior to completing our survey, respondents completed a demographic questionnaire through our survey partner. This demographic data was appended to our results after the

completion of the StepLeader survey.